


Born Lucky

by zeldadestry



Category: The Simpsons
Genre: Community: 100_women
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-14
Updated: 2007-12-14
Packaged: 2017-10-09 21:39:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/91877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeldadestry/pseuds/zeldadestry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Maggie and Lisa meet Bart and Nelson for lunch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Born Lucky

**Author's Note:**

> prompt 61, 'birth', for 100_women fanfic challenge

When Apu sold his Kwik-E-Mart franchise, he opened a vegetarian Indian restaurant, and Lisa's been one of his most loyal customers, just as her dad was once a regular at the convenience store. She's there now, home from Yale for the summer, sitting next to Maggie who's complaining loudly. "Bart is always late."

"I know," Lisa says. "He gets distracted; you know how he is." Last time they'd agreed to meet here, there'd only been a few scraps of nan and a few bites of dal remaining by the time Bart arrived, escorting both Sherri and Terri, who he'd run into on the way over. Maggie had teased him for a month by saying, "You know, Sherri and Terri really remind me of Aunt Patty and Aunt Selma. All that purple hair." Bart had looked nauseated every time she brought it up. Lisa was certain Bart wouldn't be going out with either of them for a while. "Wait," she asks Maggie, "which one likes Bart? Is it Sherri or Terri?"

"Fuck if I know," Maggie says, "I can't tell those hoes apart." Maggie voice is just like their mother's, but she's not only inherited their father's veritable Tourette's syndrome, she's raised it to the next level. "Oh! There he is!" She waves to their brother.

"Hey, guys," Bart says, bending down to give Maggie a quick kiss on the cheek and Lisa a pat on the head. "You remember Nelson."

"Hey, Lisa," Nelson says. "Good to see you."

"I'm Maggie," Maggie says, extending her hand across the table. "Pleased to meet ya. Sit down. Whatcha drink?"

Sometimes Lisa is driven crazy by how hands-on both her siblings are. There's no time for her to process, she needs time to process, but Bart and Nelson are sitting down across from her, and Bart's showing Nelson the menu, and Maggie's calling Manjula over from the bar to take their drink orders, and is she imagining it or did someone just turn up the music, because it's way too loud. Hail fellow well met, Bart and Maggie both, open and enthusiastic and warming up to people immediately, because everyone's the same to them. But Lisa needs to sit back, she needs to breathe, and she's thought about Nelson since the last time she saw him, when he finally graduated, in her class, actually, after two years as a sophomore and two more as a senior.

"Hey," Nelson complains, having finished his perusal of the menu. "Where's the beef?"

"Nelson! In Hinduism the cow is honored as a symbol of the universal mother." She can already feel herself slipping into her school mode, her 'I'm really smart and watch while I insist on proving it over and over and over' default setting.

"Ok," he says, furrowing his brow. "No beef, I get it. But where's the chicken? Where's the pork?"

"This is a vegetarian restaurant," Lisa admonishes through gritted teeth.

"Vegetarian! Vegetarians are pussies," Nelson says. "You didn't tell me this was a pussy restaurant, Bart."

Maggie and Bart push their chairs back from the table and raise their eyebrows at each other, anticipating the fun of Lisa exploding, but not wanting to be in range of her when it happens. Lisa takes a sip of her beer, smiles sweetly. "What's the problem, Nelson? Don't you like pussy?"

Maggie spits out her soda as she bursts into laughter, and Bart says, "Ew, Maggie, gross," as he scrubs at his cheek.

"Sorry," Maggie says, using her napkin to wipe his face clean. "Little bitty Barty," she says, just as their mom did when they were kids, and when she puts the napkin back down, she picks up her mug and they all cheer, "To Marge!"

By the third time they toast, Nelson joins them. "I always did like your mom."

"Everyone likes mom," Bart says, "and no one knows what she sees in dad."

"He loves her," Maggie says, suddenly serious, and Lisa presses her lips together, nods.

"He doesn't just love her," Nelson points out. "I mean he stuck around with all of you, all these years. My old man didn't even make it to my first day of school. I think a woman always loves a man who loves her kids." He's staring in the distance, like he can see his father, like he still hopes the man might be coming back one day, and Maggie and Bart look away, embarrassed. "You guys are fuckin lucky."

Lisa keeps her eyes on him and she knows he's right. "It's good to see you, Nelson," she says, and when he smirks at her, she smirks right back.


End file.
